No surprise here

On my first day at my new job (I was laid off, had to find a new school or sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting to get my job back, found one that a lot of teachers might covet--not this one!) my students received a short writing assignment that was in conjunction with a small class project. I've done this assignment many times before with my previous students--from the "ghetto."

This particular activity involves making connections between vocabulary words (sounds easy, but making connections is a somewhat advanced cognitive activity). What did I find my from my new students? Sub-par responses. Lack of connections. Now, my previous students may not have had the most grammatically correct sentences. They may have invented their own sentence structures, but their ideas! Their ideas were great. They made well thought out connections; some connections even extended beyond the simple vocabulary and pulled in examples from the real world. A teacher couldn't ask for more. But at my new school...

At my new school where I've been told that students are "better" and "smarter" and "achieve more" the response were dull and thoughtless. I wasn't shocked, but I was in shock. I knew that my previous bunch were no less intelligent than these kids, but here it was plain as day. My new students may test well on the CST and CAHSEE, but when asked to work on more advanced levels, wow. No different. Maybe weaker. So what did I do? The majority of my students received Ds on their assignment (blasphemy!), and were asked to rewrite them.

The rewrites were better, and they've since avoided slacking off in the thought department. They are really starting to grow. But the real lesson here lies in the true data gathered: these kids are no smarter nor high achieving than my previous students. No matter what those standardized test scores say.

Free pass

The public school I now work at is overwhelmingly Jewish. Due to both the student and faculty population, when there are very important Jewish holidays, the school calendar states, "Local Holiday." Lucky me. I get a four day weekend.

So today, before our four day weekend, I assigned a small packet of homework to my journalism students. They need to learn how to count and write headlines. And who raises his hand to protest? The child with the perfectly kept Afro (and I'm not talking Jew-fro, here. I mean genuine, gorgeous Afro). "Excuse me? Homework? Don't you know there is an important weekend of Jewish observance?"

Thanks, Einstein.

"I'm Jewish. Thanks for the update. Do your homework; it's due Monday."

Were any of my fellow tribe members complaining about homework? No. They were not trying to get a free pass. And to them I say, l'shana tova. Now where's my apples and honey?!